Members of the Ku Klux Klan in Jasper, Texas. The teenager posted footage of Klansmen hanging a black man online

A 'reclusive' teenager has become the youngest person prosecuted for inciting racial hatred by posting a video of the Ku Klux Klan hanging a black man online, a court heard.

The youngster, who 'lived in his bedroom' and cannot be named for legal reasons, set up an internet site on which he 'demonstrated how to stab a n*****'.

The teenager, who lives near Fakenham, Norfolk, is now 17 but was 15 when police found the website, magistrates in King's Lynn, Norfolk, were told.

He was given a two-year conditional discharge by magistrates after admitting distributing 'threatening, abusive or insulting' material meaning to 'stir' racial hatred.

Crown Prosecution Service officials said they thought it was the first time anyone so young had been prosecuted for inciting racial hatred by posting inflammatory material on a website.

Defence lawyers said the youngster had special needs and had been seeking attention.

But a CPS solicitor said teenagers should realise posting racist material on the internet was 'not a joke'.

'Young people need to realise that it is not a joke to post hate-filled material on video sharing websites or sites they set up themselves,' said CPS lawyer Viv Goddard.

'The material in this case was not just offensive but highly disturbing in its violence and imagery, particularly one clip which showed a black man being hanged by the Ku Klux Klan then his leg being hacked off and thrown into a fire.

'People are entitled to hold racist and extreme opinions which others may find offensive and obnoxious.

'What they are not entitled to do is to publish or distribute those opinions to the public in a threatening, abusive or insulting manner.'